The Nonreligious keep leading America’s trending approval of Same-Sex Marriage

Religious prejudice against non-hetero citizens has been gradually subsiding, still potent yet destined for marginality. Regrettably, religious tolerance today still hasn’t risen to the level that nonreligious attitudes had attained over a decade ago. Following nonreligious trends is still the right direction for the country.

Along with the portion of Jewish Americans who are fairly secular, the nonreligious segment of Americans unaffiliated with any denomination are much less opposed to same-sex marriage, just as they were a decade ago. PRRI states that two of the most supportive groups are religiously unaffiliated Americans (73%) and Jewish Americans (83%), two groups that include many secular people.

Looking into the data, according to PPRI, 22% of Americans are ‘unaffiliated’ with any religion, unwilling to identify with an organized religion. These “Nones,” as they are labeled, is a group that continues to gradually expand, along with the growing sub-segment of atheists. Their approval of same-sex marriage, and acceptance of people regardless of hetero status, continues to grow as well. The PRRI report says,

Demographics is destiny, as the saying goes – where are young Americans trending? PRRI says that “nearly 7-in-10 (69%) Millennials (ages 18 to 33) favor same-sex marriage.” Many of those Millennials have left organized religion, and values are a big part of that migration into the Nones, swelling that group’s numbers. Into the future, if this trend continues, religious denominations will continue to shrink while their intolerance gets sustained by those willing to remain in the pews. It would be a mistake to presume that more tolerant people are the only ones leaving organized religion. A large and growing sub-group of the Nones consists of people disenchanted with houses of worship for many other reasons but they are still personally religious, and their values apparently haven’t changed much.

PRRI has tracked one striking example about these religious Nones – many of these religious Nones remain opposed to same-sex marriage. It reports how 26% of the unaffiliated agreed that same-sex goes against their religious beliefs, up from 18% in 2003. However, among the Nones who don’t hold religious beliefs anymore, these nonreligious Nones are leading the way, along with Jewish Americans.

Demographics lends itself to making predictions. Where might these trends, among the religiously affiliated and the nonaffiliated, be headed after another ten years have passed? One trend seem secure: that loose ‘group’ of Nones will continue to become more diverse, and perhaps less predictable.